Saturday, March 15, 2014
Presidential Board Room (Omni Shoreham)
After World War Two the development of the then called “under-developed” regions of the world became a major global enterprise. It was then, that the attempt to raise the living standards in foreign societies became established as an international practice. The United Nations played no small role in this story, influentially popularizing the concept of development as a certain way of viewing and intervening in the world. During the 1950s, almost three-quarters of the U.N. civil servants and experts shaping this process came from Western Europe and North America, with the colonial powers – United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands – constituting the primary recruiting grounds. What were the professional backgrounds and individual outlooks of these pioneers of a new profession? How did they build claims to expertise in a field – development aid – that was only just emerging at the time? In what ways did their actions have a lasting effect on U.N. practices and institutions of development? By reviewing the individual experiences of Europeans involved in early U.N. technical assistance efforts, this paper will provide some answers to these questions and contribute to the broader literature on the history of development, as well as to the history of international organization and reflect on Europe's role within both.
